by Jessica Reed
Surely this is a musical item that openDemocracy readers will want to buy, if only for the sake of political ironic hipsterness: ex-Italian prime minister Silivo Berlusconi has released a cd of "love songs", for which he wrote the lyrics to. Of course, he had already flirted with musical glory back in 2003, and 2005.
We at openDemocracy were fortunate enough to listen to an excerpt, and let us tell you: we were pleasantly surprised. Some uplifting horns here, some uptempo rythm there, and a 50s "Sinatra" quality to Il Cavaliere's voice is what you can expect from it, should you choose to make the purchase. A source in the office even tells me that Berlusconi's musical skills should not come as a surprise, as he used to be a crooner-piano player on a cruise ship.
As I related those excellent artistic news to another well informed source, I was told that Berlusconi is not the only Prime Minister brave enough to venture in the cruel world of music production. Back in 2001 Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi released a CD of personally selected Elvis classics.
The CD included 25 of his favourite songs and featured a computer-generated cover photo of the two men together, plus comments from the prime minister about each song he had chosen.
Now, I am not sure I would buy this one.
Elsewhere: Shortcut - "Just in Time for Christmas" + Bush and Koizumi bond over Elvis.
Picture - via akoaraisin's flickr page.
